A Mother's Love
by JL Wrighton
Summary: One shots involving Athena and her daughter, Annabeth
1. Chapter 1

This story begins approximately two months after the Battle of the Labyrinth. Annabeth is heading home to San Francisco and is spending the day in New York, thinking back on her summer.

I loaded the last of my junk into the back of the camp van, and headed back to the Big House. Argus still had to fill the van with gas so I thought I would go say goodbye to Chiron. He stood in full centaur form for the first time in months, enjoying some sun on his flanks. He squeezed my shoulder tightly. "Stay on the watch. Where you are going is fraught with monsters nowadays. And it will only get worse." I tried to smile up at him, hugging him around his middle, the highest anyone can reach. "Chiron, I know. I'm only going to be there for a little while."

He let me go and I rode shotgun with Argus. We didn't talk much. He switched through stations till he found some ACDC and left it be. I stared out the window.

My dad's flight got in tonight. I had arranged to meet him at the airport. In the meantime, I had the city to myself. I wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum. In the meantime, I left my suitcase at the airport, in one of their lockers. Argus left me at the museum. He seemed kind of antsy and didn't want to get out of the van. "It smells like monsters." He whispered as I hugged him."Be careful."

Inside the museum was nice enough, but my heart wasn't in it. I've been really down ever since Percy left. It's been awkward now that I know that he likes that Rachel girl. I don't mind him liking her, but there's something about her. She is attracted to the things he's done that she's never seen before. And once that glamour wears off and she realizes he's perfectly normal minus being the hero in the prophecy, she won't like him anymore. And I don't want him to be hurt.

My phone rang and some old lady glared at me. I ducked into a fairly empty Egyptian room and answerd. "Hello? Annabeth Chase."

"Hi dear." I dropped the phone in shock, grabbing it inches from smashing on the tiles. "Mom? How did you get my number?"

"Dear, is that really a question? I'm outside the museum, I'd like to talk to you in person if you have time."

"I'll be right out."

She was waiting outside for me. For a god she looked pretty simple. Most gods show up in whatever they want and leave it to the Mist to cover for them. But she liked to blend in. Just jeans and a shirt that said 'Knowledge is Power'. She gave me a hug, and leaned back to look at me. At the rate I've been growing, I've only about 6 inches more to grow to look her in the eye.

"I know a small diner not too far from here that makes the best fries. Want to go?" she asks. We walk along the sidewalk as she asks me questions about when's my dad going to be here, how soon would the flight leave after that, and eventually moved onto plans for my pretend-I'm-normal life. Things like what school I'm going to, shopping for school clothes, and plans for my birthday.

I really like that about my Mom. She claims all of her children early on in life and watches over us. She sends us birthday cards and all of her kids, after their eleven and she's claimed them, get a twice yearly visit. She's helped us furnish the cabin with everything we could ever need for studying and has even gone so far as to get some of our harder class textbooks in Greek. She wants us to succeed.

The conversation tapered off as we got to the diner and Mom ordered for us. We sat down at the stools they had lined up on one side of the room. "Something's bothering you." She observed. I rubbed my arms. "Yeah. Luke contacted me again yesterday."

At the beginning of June, Luke contacted me through an Iris-message. He offered me a place as one of his lieutenants. I had said no and cut off the message but he tried again yesterday while I was in the showers. Thank goodness my towel was right outside the door, because I stepped out and there was Luke in the mirror. That mirror is now quite inconveniently stabbed by my blade. I had gotten a hold of Mom that night and told her about it.

"If you want I can give you a Mist block, to keep Iris-messages from you." I slurped on my shake.

"No, it's the best way to communicate with camp and the others. Luke is probably anticipating me doing something like that and hopes to isolate me far away from the other campers and protection." She nodded.

"That is true. But still. I've already gotten Zephyr to agree that any half-blood in serious danger will have a free ride with him to camp. It seems best. All of the other gods seem to have forgotten their children in the planning for a battle."

We each feel into silence as we ate (the food was great). Her phone beeped and she answered, muttering some Greek curse when she saw the caller ID. Hearing my mother swear like some Spartan was quite interesting. "Zeus, I told you I'm not going to the war council meeting. This is my day off and I'm spending it with my daughter." There was a long pause.

"Typhon? No. We were ready for a monster battle not a battle by a primary! Alright. I'll be there in a minute." She hung up the phone and asked a passing waitress for a to-go bag. She turned back to me, frowning now. "Typhon's free. Already minor gods are leaving to try and slow him down. We have to go." It was not a question but a command. We hurried out of the diner and ducked into a back alley.

"Please shut your eyes dear. I have to go through divine form to get us to Olympus and I do not want to hurt you." She took my hand and when she said I could open them again, I was standing in her Olympus villa.

"My armor." It came at her call, strapping down on her body. A leather bag slung itself over her shoulder, carrying thousands of arrows in miniature. Spears and javelins compacted into ballpoint pens, dumping into the bag. She carried the bag over her shoulder, a bow in one hand, and one huge double-headed ax in the other.

"Sweetheart, please stay here. The phone is in the kitchen and you can call for a taxi in a few hours. You're welcome to explore, but don't go poking through other gods homes. They could incinerate you." She disappeared and I wandered around her villa. Even as storm clouds brewed over Olympus, there was light coming from somewhere and made the inside feel like warm spring weather.

There was a Hephaestus TV in the living room and it was on. It showed a view of Mount Helen, where Typhon was already battling several gods. I hit the remote and the channel changed. This beach was peaceful. I watched it for a moment, wondering if I had stumbled onto the Nature channel. Suddenly on the right corner Percy came sprinting, racign to the water. He swam out to sea as a girl sat down on the beach and laughed, watching him.

Rachel, that was her name. I watched them for a few moments then hit the power button. The screen went dark as the last line of the prophecy came back to me as it had already done several times. _And lose a love to worse than death. _I now knew what could be worse than death. Sure, losing Luke to evil like we did hurt bad, but I had lost Percy too. And I hadn't lost him to a monster like I had been scared would happen someday. I had lost him to another girl. She was pretty and unique and they looked right together. Our parents hadn't been civil in a few thousand years, and the two of us argued so much.

What hope did I have against mortal beauty? Against...normalacy? A mortal and a demigod didn't attract monsters the way 2 demigods would. A mortal girl didn't carry a celestial bronze dagger, or swear at people in Ancient Greek. She would never have trouble reading the menu on a date, or focusing through a whole movie. She could be pretty and normal and Percy would love her.


	2. Chapter 2

"Honey, I'm home!" Frederick Chase came through his door in a breeze of maps, essays and red pens. He could hear Bobby and Matthew already playing in their room and dinner was cooking. Annabeth was probably already home as well, but she didn't make much noise. Frederick left his pile of papers in his study and came back downstairs to see his family. This plan came to a shrieking halt when he rounded the corner and faced the family room, vacant of his sons, but occupied by his wife, sitting on their couch. He saw her for but a moment, hands twisting in her lap, fear widening her eyes, before he realized he was also looking at a gray-eyed woman he had learned thoroughly to fear. "Athena? What are you doing here?"

She stood, several inches taller than him. Before the goddess could speak, his wife cleared her throat. "It's about Annabeth dear."

"She's upstairs doing homework isn't she?" Frederick stared blankly at Athena, who, for all that she was not Ares, was starting to shine a very flame-like yellow.

"She. Is. Gone." With each glare, Athena's face set harder and angrier until she seemed to be cold marble. The room grew darker, all the light gathering towards her. "You have forced my daughter, my blessing upon this house, from hearth and home. I may not interfere with her life directly. You have sent her away. She travels under the protection of Hermes now. What say you?"

"Well…" Frederick's mind was terribly unfocused at the best of times and now, it was only amplified. "I suppose I would hope she would get back before school tomorrow."

"SHE IS NOT COMING BACK TO THIS PLACE!" Athena roared.

It could've very well been his own fear, but he was almost sure that she was growing taller. "YOU PUSHED HER AWAY! YOU HAVE DOOMED HER TO YEARS OF HARDSHIP, OF LONELINESS AND YOU WANT HER TO BE BACK TO SCHOOL TOMORROW?"

He was sure now, Athena was growing taller. Her hair, laying in its folds and curls down her back was now backlit by the chandelier. Which hung at the top of their 16 foot tall ceiling.

"What did I do?"

Athena opened her mouth to respond, but his wife, scared as she was, spoke first. "Please stop," she begged. "You'll scare the children." Athena rounded on the petite woman and Frederick winced.

"I have more presence of mind then that, mortal." She spat. "They cannot hear any of this." His wife swallowed and nodded, shrinking into the couch.

She turned back to Frederick, and he could have sworn she wasn't holding that spear a second ago. But now it was resting there in Athena's hands, and Frederick truly began to fear for the well-being on anyone in the vicinity. "You know my history. What I have done to mortals that defied me."

Frederick winced. He really didn't want to be a spider. She perceived his thoughts and threw back her head, laughing cold and cruel.

"You don't know! Of course you don't think of my child." She waved her hand towards their TV and it turned on, a large Greek Eta lighting up the screen before fading into a dark picture. "See what she endures, this curse upon my children."

Frederick watched, feet frozen to the ground as he realized he was looking at Annabeth's room, shrouded in darkness, save for one lamp in the corner. As that lamp flicked off, there was a rustling as though leaves were outside her window or papers were falling. A shiny black wave poured through the room, from the underneath side of the bed and from the closet.

"Spiders." Athena's voice was soft, and the screen changed, to a blond girl, backpack over her shoulders, striking out into the world. "They come when she is defenseless, and they bite and claw. And you didn't believe her. Refused to believe that she was truly in pain or scared, because you cared so much for the sleep of other children, less gifted, less blessed then my daughter."

She turned to Frederick and for just a moment, he perceived a single tear on the edge of her eyelashes.

She whispered quietly, "There many things I can do for my children. But to stop every spider from ever coming near her. It is beyond my power to help any of my children with this trial." She turned to the picture of Annabeth, and waved her hand over it. The screen went dark and Athena turned away. Her gaze, searing through the walls of his home, was in the direction of the boys.

"In the old days, the gods would punish the children on those mortals who offended them. A parent does not easily forget wrongs commited to a child, and the child will never make the mistake as well. But these sons are innocent, and that age has passed." She looked at Frederick, with those ancient eyes that had seen so much for so long.

"I had a son once. A wonderful son. He was good, and wise, and special. Cleverer then my other children, and a great leader among men. Annabeth is like this. Clever, more so then others older than she. She will do great things. But this is not the place where her blessing will come anymore. My blessing on her home will stay wherever she is." Athena turned to leave, but turned back to Frederick. "Frederick? If she ever tries to return to this home, you will let her. If such is not done, my wrath will be endless." She turned and began to glow brightly. Frederick looked away and his wife followed suit as the goddess vanished. "I'm sorry Frederick, I didn't know." She was starting to cry and Frederick gather his little wife in his arms. "It's alright. Athena is a very final woman. So long as we never turn Annabeth away again, everything will be alright."

Frederick's mind was not with his wife, nor the angry goddess. Rather it was with the picture of his little Annabeth, backpack, walking away. Such a brave girl, if she survived, was truly going to be a power to behold. Just like her mother.


End file.
